Why did John Mellencamp decide to take "Cougar" out of his name? Do you remember "John Cougar Mellencamp"

Answer 1

Yeah -- loved his stuff.

"DeFries insisted that Mellencamp's first album, Chestnut Street Incident, a collection of covers and derivative originals, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar, a move Mellencamp claims was made without his knowledge and against his will. . . . Mellencamp, now beginning to assert his power as a hitmaker, changed his billing for songwriting and production credits to simply John Mellencamp, although his official name on album covers and other releases was still John Cougar Mellencamp."

For the full story of the transformation of "Johnny Cougar" to John Mellencamp:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cougar_Mellencamp

Answer 2

First he went by John Cougar. Cougar wasn't really his name, but he was told that people would never listen to John Mellencamp.

Then after his popularity grew, he added Mellencamp and went by John Cougar Mellencamp so he'd have his real name in there but still be indentifiable.

Then eventually he dropped cougar and is just John Mellencamp.

Answer 3

John Mellencamp is his real name. When he first broke into show business his manager didn't think people would like his name, it wouldn't sell many records, so he had him change his name to John Cougar. After he sold a few records he decided his real name was good enough, so he went back to John Cougar Mellencamp. After a while he dropped the Cougar.

Answer 4

The "Cougar" was added by his original agent as a way to get name recognition. John didn't care for that tactic but had the realization that he would have to deal with it until the buying public would recognize him for his craft. That's why he then started hyphenating his name to John Cougar-Mellencamp. Then, once his fans got used to recognizing his given name of Mellencamp, he dropped the Cougar moniker altogether.

Answer 5

He started off as John Cougar (not his real last name), he thought that would be a good name for his singing career. When he became famous he decided to add his real last name Mellencamp. Then eventually got rid of the name cougar.

Answer 6

Actually i remember him when he was just John Cougar. He added the Mellencamp in later.

Answer 7

There was also John Cougar

Answer 8

My My My friends he was Johnny Cougar way back when he was playing the student union at Indiana University. He did eat chili dogs outside the dairy queen.

Answer 9

Yeah, I heard that cougars everywhere rose up against him using that in his name..they were offended because they didn't want to be associated with a horrible singer.

Everyone is offended these days....

Answer 10

Because "Cougars" are women who prefer younger men. SImilar to a MILF. Jesus loves cougars.